>> IMHO, the essential difference between an information resource and a
>> non-information resource is only the former can have a
>> "representation" in the web.
>
> BUt now one has to ask, in what sense of 'representation'? There is a
> (now rather large and well-established) usage in which a description
> is a kind of representation, and in particular a description in a
> formal language like OWL is a representation of the thing described.
> In this sense, having a representation on the Web does not distinguish
> anything from anything.
This is the question that Jonathan Rees asked originally. I am not a
philosopher so I don't think I can come up with some sensible
definition. But pragmatically, we can all think of information resource
as the "document-like-things that are losslessly representable in bits"
as Dan has put it. Think it in another way, it is possible for someone
to manipulate the state of an information resource within the web should
certain mechanism be implemented. But I wonder how we can make
http://www.ihmc.us/users/phayes/PatHayes.html(Pat Hayes) change its(his)
mind about httpRange-14?
Xiaoshu